CAIRO STATION (1958)

This Egyptian film from director Youssef Chahine (who also plays Qinawi, the main character, pictured at left) feels at times like a version of a Hollywood film like Grand Hotel which follows the fates of a number of people who cross paths in a public place. Here, the place is a busy train station in Cairo, and though we do get glimpses into various people's lives, there actually is a central character, Qinawi, a poor lame beggar whom a newsstand owner hires out of pity to sell newspapers on the sidewalks, though mostly what he does is spy on buxom women. The opening scene is narrated by the owner, who gives Qinawi a dilapidated shack to live in. We see in the present timeline that its walls are papered with pin-up girls, and the narrator says sadly, "How could anyone foresee his end?" (With that kind of hint, we can.) We meet a gang of energetic young women who sell soft drinks, illegally it seems, on the trains when they make stops, and Qinawi (given the nickname Limpy by the girls) has a crush on one of them, Hanuma. Moodily, she alternates between being irritated with Qinawi's attentions and encouraging him, even though she is engaged to Abu Serih, a beefy train porter who is trying, against much pushback, to unionize the workers. She has no idea how obsessed he has become with her, and when it becomes clear that she has no intention of following through with her flirtations, he becomes dangerous and, inspired by a serial killer currently in the news, decides to kill her. What might be considered the second story line, though there's not much time devoted to it, is the political activity of Abu Serih and his relationships with the threatening porter bosses. A third plot, of even less importance or development, involves a young lame girl and her boyfriend, who is leaving for four years overseas. The film drags in places, but picks up nicely with a tense sequence near the end. I found this more interesting as a cultural artifact—I've only ever seen one other Egyptian film, STRUGGLE ON THE NILE, and that came to my attention because it features the international star Omar Sharif. Chahine makes a compelling, if not terribly sympathetic, lead, and Hind Rustum (often called the Marilyn Monroe of Egyptian cinema) is similarly compelling if not likable as Hanuma. Faird Shawqi is Abu Serih, perhaps the most complex of the characters, though also hard to really know. Often called a film of "lyrical realism," there is little humor here, and not really any characters to admire, even if some do occasionally perform a small good deed. The ending is sad but satisfying. [Criterion Channel]